Putting together a new Phenom system, it's been a while

T

thomasward00

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
185
Hello,

I currently have an Athlon 64 3200+ with 2 gigs of ram and a 7800 GS video card, it still is a great running system but it's about time to build a new one.

Please keep in mind that I will not be overclocking anything ever, the most important thing to me is decent performance but stability is paramount.

I'm thinking of going in the direction of the Phenom X4 9950 black edition and a decent ATI Radeon video card, i'll prob keep running XP Pro, I'll make the jump when windows 7 comes out.

My two choices are the 9950 or the Intel Core 2 6600, my question is if all things are equal meaning Ram and Video and at stock speeds does the 9950 match the 6600 in performance both in gaming and general applications...

My AMD system has been very good to me, and i'd like to stick with them.

Thanks in advance
 
No, the Q6600 beats the 9950 in everything except some very select synthetic benchmarks.
 
Well I guess i'll go Intel this time around seeing as though there are no advantages for AMD in my price range.
 
Yep, I went the phenom route uneducated. I really don't notice a difference up from my old 3700+ except in multitasking. Games are GPU limited anyways.
 
My buddy has told me that at stock speeds the Q6600 and the 9950 BE are pretty darned close, plus he recommended the Phenom because AM2+ still has some life left, where 775 is on it's way out for intel, I learned my lesson because I went with 939 at the end of it's life and was screwed a year later with upgrades. It's just that my current system has been so good that I would love to stick with the AMD-Asus combo, but i'll be going with a Radeon this time around.
 
What is the most reliable Motherboard that will accept the 9950 BE, I would like to be in the 150 ish range.
 
thomasward00 said:
My buddy has told me that at stock speeds the Q6600 and the 9950 BE are pretty darned close, plus he recommended the Phenom because AM2+ still has some life left, where 775 is on it's way out for intel, I learned my lesson because I went with 939 at the end of it's life and was screwed a year later with upgrades. It's just that my current system has been so good that I would love to stick with the AMD-Asus combo, but i'll be going with a Radeon this time around.
Click to expand...

am2 is going to be dead socket in 2009 anyways, am3 is on its way already.
 
I have been staying with amd for a while. 3800+ -> x2 6400+ -> x4 9950be I know that intels cpus are performing over amd now, but amd's pricing is better than that of intel. I have played arround with the c2q's and the performance between the q6600 @ 3.0 and my x2 6400 @ 3.4, I couldn't really tell the difference with the naked eye. Any motherboard with the 750sb will do great on the phenoms. Plus if everybody switches to intel all together, what will happen to competition.:(
 
thomasward00 said:
My buddy has told me that at stock speeds the Q6600 and the 9950 BE are pretty darned close, plus he recommended the Phenom because AM2+ still has some life left, where 775 is on it's way out for intel, I learned my lesson because I went with 939 at the end of it's life and was screwed a year later with upgrades. It's just that my current system has been so good that I would love to stick with the AMD-Asus combo, but i'll be going with a Radeon this time around.
Click to expand...

There is another reason to go with AMD, their high end mobo is cheaper than Intel. Here you go, a high end AMD mobo for less than $150:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...mList=N82E16813136058,N82E16813131331&bop=And

For something that is over $150, these mobos are good, the Foxconn is $135 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...2E16813186149,N82E16813136057,N82E16813131339
 
Thanks alot for the mobo recommendations,

I may try and hold out until black friday and see what kind of specials will be floating around on newegg, but i'm gonna go with the Phenom 9950 BE for sure.
 
If you don't mind single PCI-E slots go with a mATX board like the one I got in my sig. Very nice and under $80
 
That sounds like an idea, i'm not gonna run crossfire or SLI, I'll spend between 200 and 300 dollars on a single card and call it a day, I like decent performance in games, but I simply don't play them enough right now to justify spending 500 or above just on video cards.
 
thomasward00 said:
Hello,

Please keep in mind that I will not be overclocking anything ever, the most important thing to me is decent performance but stability is paramount.

I'm thinking of going in the direction of the Phenom X4 9950 black edition and a decent ATI Radeon video card
Click to expand...

If you are not going to OC then I would skip the premium that the Black Edition (unlocked multiplier) has and go with the 9600 instead and save yourself about $40 bucks and cost a little performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103244
 
If you are not OCing the CPU, just get the one with highest clock speed which is the 9950BE. Make sure that the mobo can support the CPU with higher wattage.
 
From what I have read the AM2+ socket will accept future AM3 CPU's, while the new AM3 MB's will only accept AM3 CPU's. If this is true, then YES the AM2+ MB is a solid upgrade path at the moment. Especially considering the DDR2 prices and 2 new 45nm CPU's by the end of the month. Correct?
 
funkydmunky said:
From what I have read the AM2+ socket will accept future AM3 CPU's, while the new AM3 MB's will only accept AM3 CPU's. If this is true, then YES the AM2+ MB is a solid upgrade path at the moment. Especially considering the DDR2 prices and 2 new 45nm CPU's by the end of the month. Correct?
Click to expand...

yes as i said i would get a 790fx / 790 gx with the sb750 get a black edition 5400+ for now when deneb drops snag one and it will easly hand intels old microarch its ass
 
so said it's between the 9950 and the 6600 and someone tells you that the 6600 is better in every and off of that advice you go with a 9950.....am I missing something here?

let me work through some logic

Which is better A or B
B is better than A
Thanks I'll Take A


If I were you I would snag a 4850 and keep your processor until a worthy AMD upgrade or get a 6600.
 
if amd can come out with something that gives intel a run i'd definitely get it :)
 
I didn't know
You're making me feel warm and fuzzy that my Phenom > friends Q6600 he brags about all day
 
I am in the same position as the OP. I have read that the AM3 processors will work on ONLY AM2+ boards and will run off DDR2 and DDR3. So upgrading to the AM2+ system right now will not be that bad of an idea. I am thinking of getting an AM2+ board and going with a cheaper dual-core processor for the time being, thus giving me a chance to upgrade in the future. I too did the dumb thing of buying s939 only months before AM2 was released. My upgrade path has me waiting until sometime after the first of the year so I will be keeping my eye on the AM3 info.

EDIT: Quick question about mobos..... How user friendly are the DFI Lanparty's? Are they still very tempramental like they were in the s939 days or are they good and stable out of the box?
 
gregnash said:
. I have read that the AM3 processors will work on ONLY AM2+ boards and will run off DDR2 and DDR3.
Click to expand...

No the AM3 CPU's will work on AM2+ and AM3 MB's. The AM2+ boards use DDR2(making my 16GB RAM setup possible) and the AM3 boards will be DDR3(8GB max).
 
ALL4AMD said:
and get the TLB bug?????? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The TLB problem is very rare in a desktop, requiring all four cores to be loaded to 100%, and as mentioned previously there is a bios "patch" which cost some measure of performance, but then that was my advice trade some cost for some performance.
 
thomasward00 said:
Hello,

I currently have an Athlon 64 3200+ with 2 gigs of ram and a 7800 GS video card, it still is a great running system but it's about time to build a new one.

Please keep in mind that I will not be overclocking anything ever, the most important thing to me is decent performance but stability is paramount.

I'm thinking of going in the direction of the Phenom X4 9950 black edition and a decent ATI Radeon video card, i'll prob keep running XP Pro, I'll make the jump when windows 7 comes out.

My two choices are the 9950 or the Intel Core 2 6600, my question is if all things are equal meaning Ram and Video and at stock speeds does the 9950 match the 6600 in performance both in gaming and general applications...

My AMD system has been very good to me, and i'd like to stick with them.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

for now to save you some cash get the 9950 and a 790gx board casue i am taking a guess that 7800gs is agp get 4gb of ddr2 1066 the 32 bit os will eat 512 mb of ram but in the end you will be ready for windows 7 then in the future you can toss on a r700/8ish gpu when the deneb is released
 
Ensign.Fodder said:
The TLB problem is very rare in a desktop, requiring all four cores to be loaded to 100%, and as mentioned previously there is a bios "patch" which cost some measure of performance, but then that was my advice trade some cost for some performance.
Click to expand...

thats stupid. like buying a truck with a v8 and only runing on 7 cylenders :rolleyes: just so u can save a few bucks. just get a 9x50 and not have to deal with the issue or go Q6600

 
stevedave said:
so said it's between the 9950 and the 6600 and someone tells you that the 6600 is better in every and off of that advice you go with a 9950.....am I missing something here?

let me work through some logic

Which is better A or B
B is better than A
Thanks I'll Take A


If I were you I would snag a 4850 and keep your processor until a worthy AMD upgrade or get a 6600.
Click to expand...

Some people like to support the little guy, myself included. They are pretty cheap too
 
Killa_2327 said:
Some people like to support the little guy, myself included. They are pretty cheap too
Click to expand...

I have never seen that hold true. If what you say is true then if AMD gained a lead on Intel you would start buying Intel because they would be the underdog. Choosing an inferior product for the same cost as a superior product boils down to some sort of personal attachment to the inferior product some people call it fanboyizim.

If you extend that logic of supporting the little guy you should be using Linux and using Yahoo to search but you are probably on a windows box using Google.

the only reason to buy AMD right now is because of your last statement they are cheap which in some cases you can get better price for performance, but not with a quad core.
 
If you're commited to an AMD system, perhaps it would be best to wait a month or so until Deneb parts are relased. Supposedly they will be competitive with Conroe on a clock-for-clock basis (assuming a 20-30% IPC increase).
 
stevedave said:
I have never seen that hold true. If what you say is true then if AMD gained a lead on Intel you would start buying Intel because they would be the underdog. Choosing an inferior product for the same cost as a superior product boils down to some sort of personal attachment to the inferior product some people call it fanboyizim.

If you extend that logic of supporting the little guy you should be using Linux and using Yahoo to search but you are probably on a windows box using Google.

the only reason to buy AMD right now is because of your last statement they are cheap which in some cases you can get better price for performance, but not with a quad core.
Click to expand...

Yes because we all know AMD is going to somehow take over all of Intel's market share.

Look, I do support AMD, they have had a lot of financial troubles and the last thing I would want to happen is for AMD to go under and be left with choosing only Intel for performance processors. If everyone bought Intel and said the hell with AMD we would lose them, not a good thing.

And it's not like AMD is a bad choice, the processors perform just fine and the price is great. I have used a Q6600 and a Phenom 9950, I can tell no difference at all between using either of them unless I'm benchmarking, which I really couldn't care less about, I don't need a cpu that gives me an extra 100 points in 3DMark.

When it comes to your analogies though how is that the same? For one Linux is a free distro, I'm not paying for it so me using it or not really doesn't affect anything does it? Second, Yahoo imo sucks compared to Google, whereas AMD's processors perform just fine at a good price point in comparison to Intel. I'm not supporting a shitty product over a good product just to support the little guy.

Unless of course you are going to blatantly come out and say AMD creates shitty products, then by all means...
 
TLB doesn't do anything for desktop users, i've had the workaround disabled for 3 months now, no problem.
Don't buy Foxconn, there are rumors of them having financial problems. So if they go down, no warranty or bios support. i really like my DFI 790FXB. Any 790GX should suffice.
 
Well for one i own a 9600BE (B2) its great at 2400mhz with 2400mhz Nb and 1100mhz ram...But its not overclock worthy..For a stock piece its fine...

I also have tried to cook a 140watt 9950BE with over 1.78volts using max VID's and NB... I tell ya this thing @ 3520mhz and 2600mhzNb is night and day over B2...

Hmm ive maxed it on SB600/700/750 chipsets 770 780/790gx 790fx mobos...The 790FX/SB750chipset is the best for any Phenom...Espacially if you plan to sqeeze every last mhz out of it..ive blown several 790gx mobos before i grabbed my Asus 79-T...I even decided to max the VID's and Vcores to 1.70plus. months of High volts @ 3.5ghz....

If you can afford $200 get a 790FX/SB750 mobo DFI or ASUS has good Bioses ATM.. DFI's pwms and ASUS 8+2Phases are superior to 790gx..Ive sent Two GX's back for me and several more from friends popping PWM's..Biostar GX3 Gigabyte and ASUS 78-T. This turned me to 790FX/BX right away. I wanted a DFI 790bx but it wasnt out when i grabbed the ASUS 79-T..

I couldnt be happier...

Save money for a 790FX/BX Mobo then wait for 45nm ,, use a low budget X2 and learn how to overclock it on your new mobo,,Then youll be ready for Deneb and fun overclocking.

140watt 9950 ,,this CPU i use for torture testing Mobos @ 1.65volts plus on the CPU/NB and if the mobo can hang its a keeper;)

The ASUS 79-T hands down can handle any Phenom to date easily.

3520mhz_2640mhz_1174mhz.jpg


if you like AMD or want something other than Intel. Get a nice Mobo use a budget X2 then jump on a Deneb. Cheaper price in the long run over a Intel Q6600sytem .

45nm is a lot faster than 65nm..It even overclocks a lot more than my 9950:rolleyes:.
45nm ,,thats all im saying.
 
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